


Plans

by tveckling



Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Before Juliet is found 'dead', Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-Duel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 02:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14707710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tveckling/pseuds/tveckling
Summary: Paris found him sitting in the dark crypt, staring silently at Mercutio’s body. From what the servants had said Giovanni had been there for hours, his mood such that no one had dared to disturb him. Paris had hesitated but eventually steeled himself and walked into the cold space, leaving his personal servant behind. With downcast eyes, carefully avoiding looking at the still body laid out on the stone, he walked up to the equally still monarch, stopping a short distance away. He didn’t dare reach out and touch his uncle.





	Plans

Paris found him sitting in the dark crypt, staring silently at Mercutio’s body. From what the servants had said Giovanni had been there for hours, his mood such that no one had dared to disturb him. Paris had hesitated but eventually steeled himself and walked into the cold space, leaving his personal servant behind. With downcast eyes, carefully avoiding looking at the still body laid out on the stone, he walked up to the equally still monarch, stopping a short distance away. He didn’t dare reach out and touch his uncle.

“How is- how are you?” he asked, finally, when the silence had dragged on, squeezing tighter against his throat. It was hard to breathe, hard to think, focus.

Giovanni didn’t move, still staring ahead, past Paris’ shape. He was quiet for so long that Paris thought he wasn’t going to answer, but then came, quietly, “I told Valentine. I couldn’t let someone else do it; it had to be me. I let him cry on my shoulder, tried to answer his questions as best I could. He cried himself to sleep.”

Paris swallowed heavily. He had meant to visit Valentine, but he hadn’t been able to make himself knock on the door. Everyone knew how deeply the two brothers loved each other, and with Mercutio gone Paris could only guess how desolate Valentine would be. “You did what you could,” he said lamely, wishing he knew what to say to ease the grief that had settled on his uncle’s face, making him seem ancient.

Giovanni gave a humorless laugh, and Paris only noticed the tremors in his hands because he was trying so hard not to look at his face. “Me? I did nothing. I should have been harsher in my judgment, showed the families long ago that I wouldn’t tolerate their fighting any longer. It’s only through my inaction that they persisted. And now, look what has happened. My inertia caused this!”

Bound by the pain in his uncle’s voice Paris followed the gesturing hand and, for the first time since he walked into the crypt, saw his cousin’s body. The sight was like a punch, tore the air from his lungs and making him force back the sob rising in his throat. He and Mercutio had never been that close, with their difference in age and personality, but the sight of Mercutio now, lying unmoving and pale, was making Paris swallow bile.

“He was just a child.”

Paris closed his eyes at his uncle’s words, the quiet whisper that seemed to echo in the cave-like area, the softness of his voice not able to disguise the pain and grief in it.

With shaky legs Paris walked over to Mercutio, staring with strangely dry eyes. He had to marry the Capulet girl now; it was the only way to stop the feud that he could think of, making one family so much more powerful that the other wouldn’t dare move against them. He had to do it, to spare his uncle any more grief, because surely if the feud was allowed to continue there would be more deaths. He had to do it, for Mercutio’s sake, to make his death be something other than meaningless violence, to make it the beginning of a new start instead.


End file.
